Most people are familiar with the New Testament figures Mary and Martha. Jesus makes a social call on the family and while Mary sits at his feet listening to every word he says, her sister Martha busies herself preparing the food.
In St Luke's Gospel chapter 10: 38 - 42, Jesus seems to offer support to Mary who takes the "easier" option and sits at his feet, listening to what he has to say. Poor Martha, who is doing all the work, is slightly rebuked by Jesus and he tells her "You worry and fret about so many things and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, it is not to be taken from her."
In ways it sounds strange, surely the person who does the work, who comes up with the goods is the person who deserves to be praised the more. It's easy to sit around and do nothing. The person who supplies the food and makes the preparations has to be the one to be admired.
Everyone ever involved in housework knows how infuriating it is when certain members of the family always manage to slink off when it comes to preparing meals or washing up afterwards. It certainly is the stuff of many family disputes.
So it must be infuriating for the family workhorse when they read this text and see Jesus coming down on the side of the "dodger". Indeed the Rhineland mystic Meister Eckhart also takes that view and supports Martha's approach. Yet there may well be something to the line that Jesus takes. And it might be speaking to us in our times in a powerful sort of way.
Are we in the process of losing the gift of hospitality, are we gradually forgetting the skills of entertaining one another in truth and openness? Two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to join about 800 people on a charity 114-mile cycle around the Ring of Kerry. It was the experience of a lifetime. Besides the gruelling hard slog, what was most evident throughout the day was the camaraderie of the fellow cyclists towards one another. People offered help and support to each other and all along the way there were people out greeting us and cheering us on. There was also a great sense of trust among the group. Bags, bicycles and phones were left about the place and there was no question of anything been stolen. It would have been an insult for someone to have locked their bicycle.
It was in many ways a day cut off from the normality of every day life. Yes great planning was put into the day but the camaraderie and attitude among the cyclists "just happened". It was a question of people with a definite purpose getting together and working it out among themselves.
Along the way people met up and told their stories to one another. One man, who has done the cycle on a number of occasions, was doing it because his daughter was handicapped and he wanted to contribute to the fund and be of some help to those who are working for the various associated charities.
We told our stories to one another. It was somewhat like leaving your hall door open and inviting people in and it was all done in a most spontaneous way. Along the road people gathered to cheer us on. It was a sign of remarkable solidarity, their encouragement certainly helped our determination and will to keep pedalling.
Maybe in our modern sophistication we spend too much time "getting ready" or "preparing" and doing it to such an extent that in many ways it can very easily become something of a ritual and lose its real meaning and vibrancy.
Running around the place and making sure that everything is in tip top shape certainly helps make things flow well and properly, but maybe in doing so we are taking the life out of things.
It's time for all of us to stand back and accept the other person into our hearts, listen to them and appreciate them for what they are.
It is not a question of being on show, it's not an exclusive matter of putting on the best spread. But it is a matter of offering our hospitality to others and doing it in such a way that they are affirmed by us.
There was nothing wrong at all in Martha doing all the work about the house, but Mary, in listening to Jesus and what he had to say, is an example for all of us. We need to listen to one another, to accept one another. All the other issues are details, just details and leave them at that.
When we are truly listening to one another we are also on our way to hearing God╣s word.
MC